


Wallflowers may have thorns

by Rileyisawattflower



Category: We Are The Tigers - Allen
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:21:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28488987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rileyisawattflower/pseuds/Rileyisawattflower
Summary: Could the events of the tragic sleepover have been prevented?Reese finds Riley upset outside of cheer practice and attempts to help her, not realising the good she has done...
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My first watt fic! I love we are the tigers, it’s such a comfort musical and it is amazing, Riley is one of my favourite characters so I decided to do a little bit about “what if the events of the sleepover could be prevented” with Reese (who is another one of my favourite characters) and her- so yeah-  
> !!!I DISN’T HAVE A CHANCE TO PROOF READ SO SORRY FOR ANY MISTAKES!!!  
> Enjoy?

Riley ran out of the cramped gym, tears filling her eyes, pain burning across her head.  
Nobody noticed her slip away,  
Nobody notices her.  
Riley Williams is a wallflower, and that’s all she will ever be.  
She slammed her hand against the wall and screamed, tears streaming down her face like waterfalls. She collapsed onto the floor and sobbed, she wiped her tears away, suddenly realising that she was soon to be the tigers captain (or so she hoped...) and she needed to keep it together. What is it she heard once? ‘If they never see you cry then they might just go away’  
Yes. That was it, Riley had it on a peice of paper that she hid behind her bed, she took it out and looked at it sometimes when she felt like she was going to cry in front of someone.  
She looked down at her hands and began to panic, there was blood everywhere, or did she imagine it? Then she saw it, the lifeless body of Farrah slumped against the wall, she backed up against the wall behind her, threw her head into her hands and cried, forgetting to hide it this time, she let it out and couldn’t stop, she looked down again and the blood was gone, Farrah was gone, everyone was gone, she was alone. She began to cry even more and shook with every tear that fell.  
Stop it, Stop it, stop it, stop it! She told herself.  
she wasn’t in fourth grade anymore,   
she wasn’t little helpless Riley,  
she was strong, and she was powerful and she-

“Um- Riley? Are you- are you okay?”  
Riley looked up to see Reese, tiger headpiece in hand, leaning against the wall on which Farrah’s dead body once sat.  
She didn’t dare remind herself what she thought of, what she saw. And instead yelled, yelled loudly right into Reese’s  
face  
“GO AWAY REESES! You’re just a useless mascot, you don’t know anything!”  
She stopped and began to cry again-  
“I’m- I- I- I’m, so- s-so sorry...” her stutter came through again, she was ashamed of it, and did a good job of hiding it, but sometimes she couldn’t and it came back.  
“It’s fine.” Reese sounded disappointed and upset, and Riley felt bad.  
The mascot looked down and the red-head and sat down beside her  
“What’s going on, Riley?” She asked, and the small girl looked to her side, shocked   
“Did you just say? I- I- I- no one ever asks me that, no one ever cares”  
Reese looked concerned, and then sympathetic   
“I’ve been there Riley, I feel like no one cares about me most of the time.” The mascot replied.  
“Really? Thank god I’m not alone. I just feel so, stressed, and every single person in that room makes me want to scream, I think they hate me and I just- I just-“  
She considered what she was about to say, and re-phrased.  
“Do you ever...think about people dying? You know, fantasise and then get terrified of it actually happening and it being your fault?”  
She thought she sounded insane, she wanted to take all of that back and wished she’d never said it. Riley began to cry again, she didn’t even care that Reese was there now, she couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down.  
“Riley that’s-“  
“Crazy? Stupid? I’m psychotic? I’m evil? I’m a horrible person? Its insane? I’M insane? I’M-“  
Riley interrupted, breaking down her walls and letting her feelings out for the first time in years.  
“No, no, Riley. I don’t think that about you, in fact, I wish I were you! I bet you’ll be captain next year, you got on the team first try and- and I’m just a stupid mascot. I, sometimes think about people on the team disappearing into thin air, and I’ll take their place! It’s not strange, Riley, it’s- um- look, I don’t know what’s going on in your life but, everyone in there is jealous of you, they seem to hate you, I bet you think they do-“  
The hunched over red-head nodded slowly, before allowing Reese to continue.  
“Yeah? Well they don’t, they want to be you. You are the best cheerleader on this team, your talented, you always put the team first and all of those girls would- well, kill to be you. Yeah? I think you need to start believing in yourself and- um...start doing things for you, not us, we appreciate you and we love your commitment but I can’t be good for you, Riley. You should start helping yourself more than others.”  
Riley smiled, it was good to know that someone didn’t think she was insane. She looked up at Reese and smiled at her this time  
“Should we get out of here? I don’t know where we’ll go, but we should go somewhere- just leave this team for just one practice, it can’t hurt and besides; you totally deserve it”  
Reese offered her hand to Riley and helped her up, Riley replied with a quiet “okay-“ and the pair walked away, Reese quickly raising her middle finger towards the gym, flipping it down and instantly regretting it.  
The shorter girl beside her noticed this and laughed, Reese joined in.  
And for once, the two felt included.

*time skip here hehe*

“Bye Riley, thanks for this!” Mattie smiled and left through the grey painted wooden door outside of Riley’s house, Riley smiled back, happy that her first sleepover as captain went well, and way better than expected.  
She returned up the stairs, looked into the shined bathroom mirror and then at the tall shower behind her, and for once, didn’t imagine a death, or the team falling apart.

Riley Williams refused to be a wallflower, Riley Williams was team captain, and she was anything but a wallflower, and proud of it.


	2. Writer’s notes:

Hi! It’s Rain um- I just wanted to say thanks for reading this! And yes, the “if they never see you cry then they might just go away”  
Was a before the breakdown reference.  
I’m sorry that this was another sad-ish fic but, I promise I’ll write something happier soon (I’ve got a multi-musical crossover thing in the works)  
Anyway, thanks!


End file.
